Walbert Urena: Up-And-Coming Dynasty Player

Welcome back, my friends, to another installment of Up-and-Coming Dynasty Players.

In my continued search to find young pitching, I head west to California and highlight pitcher Walbert Urena of the Los Angeles Angels. Urena is only 22 years old and has emerged as a quality starter for the Angels.

Urena has snuck up on people this year as minor league numbers were nothing to write home about. But with pitching always in demand, Urena is an up-and-coming dynasty pitcher.

Career Statistics

Since signing with the Angels in 2021 for $400,000, Urena has always displayed a great fastball, earning a grade of 70. But while he threw his fastball with a lot of velocity, he didn’t always know where it was going. And his secondary pitches were all underwhelming.

But as he worked his way through the minors, the pitching coaches have helped him command his pitches a bit better and rework his repertoire to ditch an ineffective curveball and focus on his change, fastball, and sinker while introducing a sweeper. The results have been outstanding as Walbert Urena is one of the top rookies in the American League.

• Change

Despite having a four-seamer and sinker that average nearly 98 mph, Walbert Urena throws his change 33% of the time, the highest usage rate of any of his pitches. What is interesting is the fact that the velocity of his change is nearly as fast as some fastballs, as his change averages 90.6 mph – almost 4 mph faster than the average change from right-handed pitchers.

The pitch doesn’t drop like the average change, with 1.5 inches less drop, but it averages 2.6 more inches of tail, giving him a great tool to jam right-handed hitters and have a pitch that moves away from lefties. In fact, he throws his change 43% of the time against lefties, and that is one reason why left-handed hitters have a .206/.327/.294 slash line against Urena. But righties haven’t fared any better, as they have a .190/.289/.277 slash line. Overall, hitters have a .155 average and .226 SLG against his change with a 35.8% whiff rate.

• Sinker

Walbert Urena has a nasty sinker, averaging 97.8 mph with the pitch, yet it is only the second-most thrown pitch in his arsenal. He pounds the bottom of the zone with the pitch, one that is pretty much average in terms of rise and tail. And while he throws it 31% of the time, the results have been mediocre at best.

Hitters have a .289 batting average against the pitch with a .423 SLG, hitting four doubles and four homers while going 37-for-151 against the pitch.

• Four Seam Fastball

Like his sinker, Urena averages 97.8 mph with his four seamer. Unlike his sinker, he gets really good results with the pitch.

Opposing hitters have a .167 average and .256 SLG against his four seamer, with only one homer and four doubles while going 13-for-78. They also have a 22% whiff rate against the pitch. I’m no pitching coach, but I’d love to see him use his four seamer a bit more and cut back on the sinker, especially for fantasy purposes since strikeouts count and ground balls don’t!

• Sweeper

The fourth pitch Urena features is a sweeper, which averages 86.9 mph. Thrown 24% of the time against righties and only 7% against lefties, it really acts almost more like a slow slider. That is because his sweeper averages 5.8 inches of less break compared to sweepers from other right-handed pitchers but with 2.1 inches more drop.

Whether it is a sweeper or slow slider, the results have been good. Opponents have only a .146 average and .188 SLG with a 34.9% whiff rate.

The Results

• The “Good”

There is a lot of good when it comes to Urena. First, let’s start with his 2.80 ERA. Among all pitchers with 100 or more innings pitched, he ranks 12th in ERA. He has had a roller coaster ride to get to that ERA (4.76 in April and 4.28 in June, but 1.64 in May, 1.25 in July, and 3.26 so far in August). But if a player has a 2.80 ERA overall at this point of the season, I’m not going to quibble too much about how he got there.

But he’s been impressive outside of just his ERA. In his 112.2 innings of work, he has allowed only 81 hits, or 6.5 H/9. And thanks to his sinker, he has allowed only seven home runs this season. He also ranks 10th in average EV, 11th in Hard Hit% at 34.3%, and 7th in Barrel% (5.3%).

• The “Bad”

There is one area of concern when it comes to Urena at this point – his walks. He allows 4.7 BB/9. Of the 106 pitchers with more than 100 innings pitched, his 12.3% walk rate ranks dead last. Because of the walks, his WHIP comes in at 1.243. Once he learns to command the strike zone better, that WHIP will come down. But that may be asking a lot of Urena.

In five seasons in the minors, he posted a 5.5 BB/9 rate, so he is actually doing better in the majors than in the minors when it comes to his walks. The good news is the fact that as he progressed through the minors, his walk rate declined. It was 7.7/9 in Rookie ball, then 5.5 at Class A, 6.3 at High-A, 4.7 at Double-A, and 4.5 in Triple-A over two seasons.

And for those who ride the FIP train, it currently stands at 3.74, nearly a full run higher than his ERA. That suggests regression is on the horizon. But of the pitchers with more than 100 IP, his FIP ranks 45th – not great but pretty solid.

• In the end…

Young pitchers are always an exercise in frustration. They can be great and then completely fall apart. But with the calendar almost flipping to September, Urena is posting numbers too good to ignore at this point. At the age of 22, he has a lot to learn and improve, but he is already showing signs of being a very good fantasy pitcher.

Yes, the walks are a concern, but they are offset by his low H/9. Overall, he has a lot of upside, despite the fact that he ended the 2025 season as the 17th-ranked prospect in the Angels’ system by MLB.

He is far from a finished product, and his stats in the minors don’t suggest that Walbert Urena is going to be an ace. But let’s say he turns out to only be a No. 3 pitcher. Guess what? Those pitchers hold a lot of value in dynasty leagues. He has shown the ability to get major league hitters out, and that is a pitcher worth taking a gamble on.

Thank you for reading, and come back again next week.